Check out the moving ad Fox hopes will get Andy Serkis an Oscar

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20th Century Fox is ramping up its Oscar attack by releasing a new campaign ad trumpeting Serkis' Caesar performance in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. With sentimental strings underscoring behind-the-scenes shots, Fox hopes hearts will be stirred and Academy voters will be swayed. Will it work? Grab a hanky and watch.

It's been expected that Fox CEO Tom Rothman would go to the mat for his Apes star, letting the Hollywood Reporter know back in November he was going to push hard for a Best Supporting Actor nomination nod, hoping Serkis would become the first digitally altered actor to receive such recognition.

Serkis' motion-capture work in the LOTR trilogy and King Kong has awakened people's perceptions and changed definitions of screen acting and has become the standard for all future thespians who suit up and wire in. Rothman slings some serious influential weight, and rumor has it Serkis may get his prize. Go Andy!

"I think part of what we have to do is help educate people to understand that that is 100 percent his performance," Rothman said. "The emotionality—what you see and what you feel—[Serkis] did it. I saw him. I watched him. Then they digitally overlaid—you can think of it as a costume—the skin and the hair of an ape. But I tell you the thing that people felt—and a lot of people were moved when they saw the movie—is because of his performance."

If Serkis does land an Oscar nomination when the final votes are announced live on Jan. 24, it will be a pivotal day for primates.

So does the video persuade you to check Serkis' box, or is his cyber monkey business overblown?